Across his nine features thus far, Paul Thomas Anderson has never had a prime summer release, but that is about to change when it comes to his currently untitled, maybe Vineland tenth feature. With production still underway across California with the cast of Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, Wood Harris, Alana Haim, and Chase Infiniti, Warner Bros. has now set an August 8, 2025 wide release, including an IMAX run, for what they describe as an “event film.”
It’s not the first time the director’s work has been seen on an IMAX screen as his Thom Yorke collaboration Anima received a limited run in the format. Though no IMAX cameras have been spotted on set thus far, VistaVision cameras have been seen shooting in 35mm, which should look gorgeous if 70mm prints are made. The director also used VistaVision for Anima in 2019, which likely doubled as a test for this new feature, considering that was also around the time he was initially planning to make this film before the pandemic forced him to shift direction to the smaller-scale Licorice Pizza.
With a reported budget of $115 million ($20 million of which goes to DiCaprio), the question still remains if Anderson is indeed adapting Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland, but the evidence continues to pile up it’s at least a loose interpretation of that sprawling 1990 novel: Infiniti potentially playing DiCaprio’s daughter, shooting taking place in Eureka as well as outside of Ronald Reagan’s old house, while DiCaprio was captured on set saying lines lifted directly from the novel. It’s hard to fathom an anti-art tycoon like David Zaslav would finance a $115 million Pynchon adaptation, but we’re glad there are still unexplainable mysteries in this world––if nothing else, perhaps it’s simply proof of a studio willing to fund a DiCaprio-led feature at any cost.
As we await more details, check out a pair of videos capturing a master at work below.